Typing Speed as a Confounding Variable and the Measurement of Quality in Divergent Thinking

The need to control for writing or typing speed when assessing divergent-thinking performance has been recognized since the early ‘90s. An even longer tradition in divergent-thinking research has the issue of scoring the responses for quality. This research addressed both issues within structural equation modeling. Three dimensions of originality—uncommonness, remoteness, and cleverness—were used to derive an overall quality score. Mixed evidence was found in Study 1 for the direct effect of typing speed on fluency. In addition, indirect effects of typing speed via cognitive complexity on overall quality of ideas were uncovered but marginal in both Study 1 and Study 2. This indirect effect was also found for cleverness in Study 2. Another indirect effects of typing speed via fluency was found for cleverness and uncommonness. These findings indicate that controlling for typing speed is important in online divergent-thinking assessment. The inter-relations of various quality scores pertaining to the dimensions of uncommonness, remoteness, and cleverness were promising in terms of convergent validity. Important problems with respect to these scores were identified and discussed to guide future attempts to measure quality in DT.     

Creativity and Tolerance of Ambiguity: An Empirical Study

This study examines the relationship between creativity and tolerance of ambiguity. Participants were parents and their adolescent children. Three measures of creativity were used: a divergent thinking task, a story‐writing task and self‐evaluation of creative attitudes and behavior. Participants completed two self‐report measures of tolerance of ambiguity: the short version of the “Measurement of Ambiguity Tolerance” (Norton, 1975; Zenasni & Lubart, 2001) and the “Behaviour Scale of Tolerance/Intolerance for Ambiguity” (Stoycheva, 1998, 2003). Tolerance of ambiguity was significantly and positively related to creativity. Creativity of parents was related to their adolescents' creativity. However, parents' tolerance of ambiguity was not related to adolescents' tolerance of ambiguity or creativity.     

A Path Model of Meaning in Life among University Students: The Roles of Gratitude,Self-Concept Clarity and Self-Construal

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The current study aimed to investigate the relationships between meaning in life (presence of meaning, search for meaning), self-construal (integration,...     

Effects of Religious Participation on Social Inclusion and Existential Well-Being Levels of Muslim Refugees and Immigrants in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Being a refugee or immigrant brings many difficulties that can detrimentally affect well-being. Participation in social life and feeling included in the host country can play an important role on well-being. This article aims to investigate the effects of religious participation and social inclusion on well-being levels of refugees and immigrants. Data were collected from 97 participants who were enrolled in voluntary Turkish language courses for refugees in Istanbul. Results of path analysis indicated that religious participation enhanced the level of social inclusion and social inclusion fostered existential well-being. Although religious participation demonstrated no direct effects on existential well-being, it showed a significant and positive indirect effect through social inclusion. Results of difference tests indicated that participants with higher level of education attended to religious activities significantly more often and their existential well-being and social inclusion levels were higher as well. Results also demonstrated that social inclusion scores of high attenders (to religious activities) were significantly higher.     

Children's associations between space and pitch are differentially shaped by language

Musical properties, such as auditory pitch, are not expressed in the same way across cultures. In some languages, pitch is expressed in terms of spatial height (high vs. low), whereas others rely on thickness vocabulary (thick = low frequency vs. thin = high frequency). We investigated how children represent pitch in the face of this variable linguistic input by examining the developmental trajectory of linguistic and non-linguistic space-pitch associations in children who acquire Dutch (a height-pitch language) or Turkish (a thickness-pitch language). Five-year-olds, 7-year-olds, 9-year-olds, and 11-year-olds were tested for their understanding of pitch terminology and their associations of spatial dimensions with auditory pitch when no language was used. Across tasks, thickness-pitch associations were more robust than height-pitch associations. This was true for Turkish children, and also Dutch children not exposed to thickness-pitch vocabulary. Height-pitch associations, on the other hand, were not reliable—not even in Dutch-speaking children until age 11—the age when they demonstrated full comprehension of height-pitch terminology. Moreover, Turkish-speaking children reversed height-pitch associations. Taken together, these findings suggest thickness-pitch associations are acquired in similar ways by children from different cultures, but the acquisition of height-pitch associations is more susceptible to linguistic input. Overall, then, despite cross-cultural stability in some components, there is variation in how children come to represent musical pitch, one of the building blocks of music.

Research Highlights

• Children from diverse cultures differ in their understanding of music vocabulary and in their nonlinguistic associations between spatial dimensions and auditory pitch.
• Height-pitch mappings are acquired late and require additional scaffolding from language, whereas thickness-pitch mappings are acquired early and are less susceptible to language input.
• Space-pitch mappings are not static from birth to adulthood, but change over development, suggesting music cognition is shaped by cross-cultural experience.